Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

2021 Easter Message from Brother Chidananda

March 22, 2021

Easter 2021

Hidden Truths Of The Scriptures Gospels Jesus Christ

May all true devotees of God, uplifted by the transparent purity of their lives, begin to radiate the Infinite Light, equally present in all, even as Jesus did, and remember the long-forgotten truth that they are all potential Sons of God.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Dear One,

I wish you a very blessed Easter from all of the monastics in Paramahansa Yogananda’s ashrams!

We pray that as you celebrate this joyful and sacred occasion of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, his glorious victory of light over darkness will fill your consciousness with renewed confidence in a brighter future for yourself and all humanity. This auspicious time when his presence can be so strongly felt is a wonderful opportunity to dwell on his life and divine example, and to seek his blessings in your efforts to resurrect yourself into the expanded potentials and soul freedom that are our true nature.

The ultimate triumph of Jesus’ resurrection was the culmination of countless smaller inner victories of soul over ego consciousness. In our own lives, we have daily opportunities to emulate that Christ-way of living. The world prompts us to follow the ego’s impulses — our likes and dislikes; the dictates of the senses, emotions, or habits — to pay scant attention to the wiser guidance of soul-intuition. But each time we exercise conscious attention and will to heed the happiness-bestowing voice of conscience — to harmonize with eternal values and principles taught by Jesus, Krishna, and all great masters — we have taken another step toward resurrection.

In recent months, worldly promptings to focus on what divides us from our neighbors, stimulating hatred and enmity, have been strong. Easter is a call to expand our consciousness beyond the self-created tomb of the ego, to recognize our essential unity with all souls and to care about their welfare as we do for our own, for we are children of the one Father. Jesus served all, and included all in his love and compassion — even his enemies. Each of us can actively partake of that divine consciousness through expressing respect and caring even toward those we may not agree with, and thus contribute to greater amity in our world family. In this way we can renew in our own hearts, for our own era, the perennial promise of Easter: that God’s light and love will ever prevail.

God’s light will awaken and radiate most brightly in your life through inner communion with Him and keeping your heart free of negative thoughts — fears, worries, and surrender to the “gloom and doom” that results from undiscriminating consumption of mass media. Take courage from Paramahansaji’s prophetic assurance about the universal Christ: “He is risen in the atomic age, and all its devastations will not hide the birth of his spirit of new life, new humanity, rising from the cradle of wisdom and universal love.” The science of Kriya Yoga Paramahansaji brought as a special dispensation for this age is evidence of that new life; and by faithfully meditating, praying, and living the Christlike ideals of which he reminded us, let us do our part to create a new world filled with God’s light and love.

Warm wishes to you and your dear ones for a joyous and blessed Easter,

Brother Chidananda

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